“No; it is not I, it is you, all you,” exclaimed Geneviève. “You are not kind, you do no longer like me. It is all Cicely you want to-day, not Geneviève. There is no Geneviève; she has gone. It is Miss Casalis.”
Mr. Fawcett’s fair face deepened in colour as he listened to her childish words. At first he seemed on the point of answering hastily, but on second thoughts he checked himself. When he did speak, it was very quietly.
“You have mistaken me, Geneviève,” he said. “Why should my mention of Cicely make you think I don’t care for you? Can’t one care for more than one person in the world? Suppose you and Cicely had been my sisters, couldn’t I have cared for you both?”
“I could never be like your sister,” said. Geneviève inconsequently. “Cicely is different; she has been with you always.”
“Yes, of course,” replied Trevor hastily, “but you can be my little friend, can’t you? I have wished you to be my little friend, Geneviève, ever since the first day I saw you; the day I lifted you up from the dusty road at Hivèritz, where those beasts of horses had knocked you down. How pitiful you looked, you poor little soul! Yes, Geneviève, I have always felt a special interest in you since then.”
Unconsciously to himself, his voice grew soft and tender, as the remembrance of the lovely pale face with the closed eyelids and flood of wavy dark hair that had rested on his shoulder, came back to his mind. He looked at her as he spoke. Was the face beside him now less lovely; was it not rather ten times more so, as a smile, called forth by his words, dimpled the flushed cheeks and lighted up the expressive eyes?
“Have you really? Have you never forgotten that day?” whispered Geneviève.
Mr. Fawcett’s answer was less sentimental than she expected. Something just at this moment seemed to spring from the ground at their feet, and leap away again so quickly that the girl could hardly distinguish what it was.
“By Jove!” exclaimed Trevor, “what a splendid hare. Did you see it, Geneviève?”
“I thought it was a rabbit,” she replied, but this time she did not resent his laughing at her.